


The Muse

by flamingosarepink



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Ficlet, Juventus Turin, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-29 02:14:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12072477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamingosarepink/pseuds/flamingosarepink
Summary: But this time is a new time and the nervousness is mixed with excitement.





	The Muse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [selenedaydreams](https://archiveofourown.org/users/selenedaydreams/gifts).



> inspired by THAT photo of Mario and Paulo from training that we were all yelling over.

There’s something different about that day when they all set out for the training pitch. Jovial as usual, but there’s a unspoken nervousness. Maybe it’s given what happened last time, getting to the final and laying waste to it despite their efforts, Gigi saying that he planned to retire… but this time is a new time and the nervousness is mixed with excitement. Everyone wants to do well, that goes without saying- despite not knowing what’s really going to happen. The day is beautiful, sunny but not too warm, with a slight nip in the air to make it comfortable. The team goes about training the same way they always do despite the new variables. Warmup, then whatever drills come after. 

The failures of last time is what fuels Paulo through the session and what has been his drive through the start of the new season, making him power through training sessions and games till he feels exhaustion seep in slowly and then hitting him all at once when he gets home to collapse in bed. Humbleness aside, if anyone asked about his hopes for this new Champion’s League cycle, he would say what everyone naturally would assume; I want to win, I want a result that will make everyone forget about last time. He is aware that anything could happen, they all are. But for now there is hope, and hope is the goal he scores when he practices a free kick. Paulo expects nothing from it, and there’s a fierce critical aspect to all of this when the voice in the back of his mind tells him to do it again, to make sure you can do it again, and again, and again. You’ll never win if you can’t do it again. 

So when his turn in the line up comes again, he does, expecting no praise. 

“That was brilliant.” Mario says gently with a bright grin that shows teeth, sidling up to him towards the end of the session when all of them are milling about into different groups, playing two touch or doing whatever trick shots for the few cameras shuttering away via some photographers who happened to be invited.

Paulo only smiles just so as Mario’s arm hangs over his neck, a grin of his own blooming on his face. “Thank you.” He says, taking the praise his friend gives him with a tone that seems a lot more serious despite that grin. Paulo wraps an arm around Mario too, hand settling on the top of his shoulder just so as they along with their teammates file inside to the locker room to shower and head back to their rooms. 

At some point between falling onto his bed and waking up, Paulo thinks to check Instagram. In the time between they got back and now, Mario’s posted a picture. 

It’s of the moment they had, captured so they may or may not remember it forever. The caption reads Teammates but one hashtag stands out- Baby Lion. Paulo doesn’t know what to make of that, but Mario felt it was appropriate. Now is not the time for them all to grovel under the disappointment of last season, Mario had figured when he posted it. The way that Paulo has tackled everything so far, working harder and harder and never settling for less than what he wants and setting impossibly high goals that he seemingly clears before moving on to the next?

It’s what Mario himself plans to do -as an artist paints his next masterpiece only after having painted the last- and Paulo is simply his muse.


End file.
